Senate Bill No. 359
(By Senators Minard, Unger, Love and Kessler)
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[Introduced January 29, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §21-5-19, relating to
allowing public employees twenty-five hours of paid leave per
calender year to respond as a volunteer firefighter to
emergencies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §21-5-19, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5. WAGE PAYMENT AND COLLECTION.
§21-5-19. Leave of absence for public officials and employees
serving as volunteer firefighters.
Any official or employee of the state, or subdivisions or
municipalities of the state, who is a member of a volunteer fire
department, shall be entitled to leave of absence from his or her office or employment without loss of pay, status or efficiency
rating, upon notification of the existence of an emergency
occurring during business hours, to which the official or employee
is obligated to respond as the member of a voluntary fire
department. Paid leave of absence granted under this section shall
not exceed twenty-five hours in any calender year: Provided, That,
the phrase "without loss of pay" for purposes of this section means
the official or employee shall continue to receive his or her
normal salary or compensation during the period of the leave of
absence whether or not he or she receives other compensation from
federal or other state governmental sources during this same period
of time.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow state employees who
are members of volunteer fire departments to receive paid leave of
absence during times they are required to respond to emergencies
during their regular work hours. The bill would allow up to 25
hours of paid leave in one calender year.
This section
is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.